Author, motivational speaker and entrepreneur Jim Rohn is known for many great sayings such as:

Never wish life were easier, wish that you were better.

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.

And then there was this one:

You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

Now for the big question, who are those people?

My dad was either a big fan of Jim Rohn or he understood this lesson at a high level from somewhere in life. Because when I was in grade 10 I spent my time with a specific group of friends. My grades suffered and I almost had the opportunity to repeat some of my classes that year. My dad stepped up and gave me two options. Option one, be grounded for the rest of my high school life and never have a social life. Option two, find new friends!

The friends that I spent time with during grade 10 I am sure are all great people now. At the time they didn't show the drive that my dad knew was within me and instead of pushing myself, I held back to stay with my friends. Had I remained with this group, who knows who I am today!

Instead of being locked in the house for the next few years, as you can guess I took the second option and I developed other friendships and surrounded myself with a group of guys that had drive, determination and goals in their future. Now one is an author, one an actor, one a lawyer, one a leader in his organization and one a leader in tourism for a major city. All of these friends are like brothers to me and even now, 30 years later we are still just as close.

What did my dad know? He knew that surrounding me with others that were growing, learning and challenging each other would help me to grow, to learn and to take on challenges. At the time I am sure I argued and kicked and screamed about the change. Now all I can say is thank you dad!

Let's get back to the question that I asked you before sharing part of my story. Who are those 5 people for you?
Write the names of the 5 people (adult children count, otherwise don't count your young kids still at home) that you spend the most time with.
Then create a column and rate them on a 1-10 scale of, 1) how fun they are 2) their business success 3) their health.
Average up the score for each category, fun, success and health and I bet you find rating of you.

We become the people we spend time with.

Choose your friends wisely!

Chadalyst - Go one step farther and create a list of the 5 people you want to spend your time with. Then work on developing those relationships so that you can make that list a reality!

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